West Virginia
vs.
Baylor
College Basketball
Pick – Analysis
2/28/15
Both of these teams have battled throughout the year, rather impressively in the Big 12. Neither one of them was expected to do much as they weren’t ranked near the Top 25 early on. That has changed with both being mainstays in the rankings for at least the last month.
Baylor won the first meeting in surprising fashion, by dominating West Virginia in Morgantown. It was only the second Conference home loss of the season for the Mountaineers as they just looked out of funk. The Bears came out gunning and never looked back, while shooting 55% from the field. They dominated in almost every facet from shooting to rebounding to getting to the free throw line. Sure, Baylor turned it over 19 times, but they still won by 18 points.
West Virginia has been on a bit of a roll lately having won three straight against Kansas, Texas and at Oklahoma State. That’s quite the impressive run for a team that was blown out at home only a few weeks ago.
Baylor was struggling, but that all changed on Wednesday night getting a win at Iowa State, something no one else has done this year. They didn’t even win by using their size either, making 14 three pointers in the win.
In the first meeting between these teams, Rico Gathers did pretty much whatever he wanted to do en route to 17 points and 16 boards. WVU had no real answer for him, although Devin Williams did work of his own reaching 20 points and 15 boards.
The problem in that first Game for the Mountaineers was that no one else did anything. Juwan Staten managed six points and never really looked like a threat. They have been getting help from all over the place on their winning streak and that will need to be the case here if they want to continue that. From players like Jonathan Holton to Gray Browne or even Jevon Carter off the bench, WVU has played solid team ball.
Will that be enough in Waco, though? The Bears are a big team and they dominated with their size in the first Game. OUtside of Gathers, players like Royce O’Neale and Taurean Prince had noticeable edges at their respective positions. And of course their backcOurt duo of Kenny Chery and Lester Medford still hasn’t even been mentioned yet. Those guys clamped down defensively in the first Game, and Chery is the type of player that comes through when his team needs him most.
The one way West Virginia can pull the upset is if their pressure defense once again forces Baylor into mistakes. That means in addition to getting turnovers, they can’t allow the Bears to get easy buckets with Gathers down low. And if the Mountaineers can’t stop Gathers or Baylor from shooting over 50%, it’s unlikely they win on the road.
Staten will need to have a much better Game than the first team around along with the likes of bigs Williams, Holton and Nathan Adrian off the bench. This should be a much tighter Game than the last time around, but the Bears will be hard to beat once again, especially if they shoot lights out as they did on Wednesday.
Our Prediction – Baylor by 5